Don’t be embarrassed if you can’t completely touch your toes; you’re not alone.

But those kinds of movements can easily be gained. Increased flexibility can do more than boost athletic performance; it can help create a more well-rounded life.

“Normal full-range movement is really important,” said David Wilson, clinical director at Bodyworks Physiotherapy Clinic in Palm Springs. “There’s a minimum we should be able to do.”

Everyday function relies on flexibility.

Flexibility comes from muscles, tendons, joints and ligaments. Stretching puts focus on muscles and where muscles meet tendons, the connectors for bone to muscle. Surrounding every joint is a capsule that contains fluid and provides lubrication for bone movement, explained Wilson. The capsule isolates the joint and allows it to move only so far. The capsule is designed to be tight, and it’s regular activity that keeps them moving.

“Muscles can only work on a joint that’s moving,” said Wilson. “So your flexibility is primary and your strength is secondary.”

It’s not the muscles that are getting stretched, added Wilson, but the capsules and ligaments around the joints.

“Just like muscles, joints are designed to move in both directions. So, touching your toes should be mirrored by bending backwards,” Wilson said.

But, flexibility is a double-edged sword. There are those who are very flexible, those who have a normal amount of flexibility and those who are extremely flexible. This is often determined by body type.

A bulkier person, like a football player, is typically somewhat less flexible than a stringy ballet dancer.

“The more flexible the joint is, the more you’re relying on the muscles around it to support it,” Wilson said.

Depending on the task at hand, flexibility can become a hindrance. Over-flexible shoulders or elbows make the job harder for a weight lifter, just like an over-flexible knee can be seen as a weakness in a football player.

“You don’t need to be flexible for everything, you just need to be flexible to be as functional as you want to be,” said Wilson.

“If everyone was like Gumby, we wouldn’t be able to lift anything.”

Simple stretches like yoga, are seen as a global conditioning tool to help maintain and gain flexibility.

“Not only will it give the body’s muscles more receptivity, but it will also create a better connection of engagement and coordination,” explained Sheeryn Asghari, owner of Haute Yoga in Palm Springs.

There are the poses that have a person twisted like a pretzel, but those poses, said Asghari, are a little more showy.

Sometimes it’s the simplest of stretches that can do the most: extending the arms into the air, hinging at the hips, leaning to one side or curling of the spine. Simple adaptations can be made to a pose, like bending of the knees, said Asghari to ensure nothing is strained.

“There’s never a boring yoga pose,” said Asghari.

Moving deeper into a yoga pose is a combination of engaging and relaxing, according to Asghari.

“There’s some misconception often about using muscles where the muscles are clenched. You want to find breath in that engagement,” she said.

“So there is motion in the muscles. It’s about relaxing into that available motion, the engagement of muscles and the relaxation into the range from sending the breath there.”

But stretching and yoga do more than keeping joints limber. For Asghari, an increase in flexibility can also bring agility and focus to everyday life and help a person create a rhythm within their own activity in things like baseball, running or football.

“If the body is tight, there is a stiffness in the breath pattern,” she explained, “And when the breath can’t fully reach and extend through the muscles groups and the body systematically, the coordination will not be be there.”

There’s a simple joy in the ability to move the body, she said.

“Most of us will see someone close to us have that stripped from them, where they don’t have the range of motion,” Asghari said. “Sometimes you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone.”

Child’s pose — Start by kneeling, sitting on the calves with the tops of the feet on the mat and touching. Fall forward, with the belly and chest resting in between the legs. Arms are extended in front and the head touches the mat.

Downward-facing dog — Stand tall, with feet hip-width apart and toes facing forward. Hinge forward at the waist and catch yourself with your palms, pressing into the mat. Hips are in the air with the hips and back aligned in a straight diagonal.

Tree pose — Standing up straight, pick up one foot and rest it on the ankle, shin or thigh of the straight leg, depending on flexibility.

Chair pose — Stand tall with feet together. Keeping back straight, bend at the knees and raise your arms straight into the air. If you’re feeling stable, raise your arms into the air.

Locust pose — Lie on your stomach and inhale as you raise everything off of the floor: chest, arms and legs. The neck is long and extended, away from the chest, and palms face down.